On a whirlwind tour of classrooms in Smyrna, Delaware this week, I saw a teacher use a simple strategy for engaging students. The teacher had 10 paper lunch bags, one for each small group to share. Inside the bags she had placed 26 cards, each with one letter of the alphabet. The lesson objective was to identify and discuss the impact of the narrative elements in a story. Students were listening to the teacher read, and reading along in their own books. Every so often, the teacher stopped, directed the students to pull a letter out of their “letter bag,” and then make a connection between the letter and a narrative element. For example, one group pulled an “O” and discussed how the setting of the story was “outdoors.” Another group pulled an “E” and wondered what the “exciting” climax would be. This is the type of strategy I love for 3 reasons: 1. Highly engaging – it was multi-modality and had an element of unpredictability that students immediately loved 2. Highly applicable – the same strategy could be used to encourage connections to any content discussion, as an activator, or even as a summarizing moment, K-12! 3. Low prep – such a quick thing to put together

I love discovering apps that aren't intended for classroom settings but have wonderful applications! This app fits that category exactly. CoachMyVideo, a FREE app, is intended for athletic coaching. Using the app you can take a video of someone performing a skill (typically a sport) and then analyze it in slow motion, with a variety of annotation features. In addition, you can split the screen and show two videos side-by-side so that you can compare them.

This week I used CoachMyVideo in a classroom to help students recognize what on-task behavior should look like. After taking a video of the teacher demonstrating off-task behavior, I replayed the video and allowed students to interact with the iPad to circle examples of behaviors that were on-task. We then videotaped the class and had students annotate sections that showed students demonstrating on-task behavior.

There are so many possibilities with this app! In addition to asking students to analyze their own behaviors, we could show students and parents progress with the side-by-side split screen. Teachers could use it to demonstrate lab procedures, instrumental techniques, or correct pencil grip. What other ideas can you imagine?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to work with students on building skills for writing a cause/effect essay. As a thought activator, I asked students to quickly line up some Legos I provided so that I could demonstrate the domino effect. Students worked in pairs to observe what occurred, talk about it and record the types of transition words they used to describe the cause/effect experience.

Next, I provided them with graphic organizer puzzle pieces. I modeled how one might plan for a cause/effect paper, including key transition words on the bridge shapes. Because we used puzzle pieces, instead of a static piece of paper, students were able to brainstorm first and then move pieces around to cluster their ideas. As a final step, they will put them into a sequence before they write their paper.

If you would like the graphic organizer puzzle shapes, email me at anne@ideasforeducators.com and I will happily send them to you!